BERLIN—This city doesn’t grab you, at least not immediately. Spread out and chopped up thanks to decades of multi-national rule—the American British and French sectors retain at least vestigial portions of their identities; the Soviet side much more than that – it can be maddeningly unnavigable a sort of tourist purgatory of directional snafus.

Its charms though are broad and deep. The curse of modern Germany with its remarkably progressive economic environmental and energy policies is that few can think of it without first thinking of Hitler and Berliners feel this more acutely than any. Berlin is both an ancient city and the crucible of the modern world. Israel and the Soviet Union are both rooted here not 70 years ago – arguably the two most defining geopolitical circumstances of our contemporary reality.

Almost 70 per cent of Berlin was leveled in the war meaning reconstruction in every imaginable way since. The layers of contrast sit plainly on the surface here from surviving Nazi-era buildings to row after row of post-reconstruction prefab Soviet apartment blocks to the weird glitz of Potsdamer Platz – a kind of European-style West Edmonton Mall built snug-up against the former Berlin wall in the west.

It’s confusingly eclectic but fascinatingly so. On Karl Marx Allee the central promenade of the former East Berlin crescent-shaped neo-classical buildings designed for apparatchiks have a Romanesque glory. Down the road Café Moscow sports a constructivist mural in mosaic tile; a couple of kilometres across town at Potsdamer Platz you can slip into a Tony Roma’s and pretend you’re in Minneapolis or Omaha or Topeka. In between lie worlds of difference – Berlin’s charm and one of the reasons it’s evolved into what many are calling the cultural capital of Europe.

The weight of history seems a powerful impetus for a city to press ever forward and that’s exactly the feeling one gets from Berlin. The city is young vibrant and alive filled with art and artists. It’s also by the standards of European capitals incredibly cheap: In a smoke-filled bar in trendy Kreuzberg filled with chain-smoking young hipsters I paid an unheard-of two Euros per beer. To celebrate friends and I bought ourselves a round of tequila – and paid one Euro per shot.

That’s how the day ended. Here’s how it starts:

After a little online shopping we picked the Arcotel-Velvet on Orienburger Strasse one of many in the Arcotel chain. It’s clean, comfortable, sleek, modern and incredibly well-situated in Mitte. On booking.com it had an all-in price of $95.96 per night.

This was the centre of Berlin prior to its division post World War II when it fell on the Soviet side of things. It remains a little disheveled compared to the slicker west but charmingly so; in the past decade artists galleries and a glut of lovely little independent eateries and bars have opened here most of them clustering along Augustrasse a narrow street that stretches north just out the hotel’s front door.

For good well-priced fare flip a coin: Only one – the very chi-chi Pauly Saal – seemed to have forbidding prices. Hence our arrival at Strandbad-Mitte Lokal, a homey little café just off Augustrasse on Hamburger Strasse. Germans like their breakfasts hearty with eggs, bacon, sausage and thick slabs of toast just like us and for a filling selection of things I spent 7.50 Euros ($10) including coffee. I was so happy with that I tipped a solid 30 per cent bringing my tab up to 10 ($14) Euros and earning me the eternal adoration of the staff.

A short wander down Auguststrasse and you get your fill of freebie – or near-freebie – fascinations. A cluster of very good high-end art galleries cluster along here and even one private museum KW Art.

Berlin is full of these kinds of surprises but it’s equally full of unrivalled museums – among the best in Europe. So a one-block hop off Augustrasse and onto the U-bahn and you’re in Potsdamer Platz on the way to the Neue Nationalgalerie one of the best modern art museums in the world. Its permanent collection is dizzyingly good from American abstraction to German expressionism to pop art and everything in between all housed underground below Mies van der Rohe’s light-filled glass pavilion. Price of entry was10 Euros ($14). Compare that with more than $20 at our own AGO and it looks like a bargain.

Equally reasonable is the Hamburger Bahnhof a gargantuan contemporary art museum. Housed in an old train station (hence “Bahnhof”) the museum has a vaulted central gallery and an annex of former platforms that seems to go on for miles. The controversial Flick collection – donated by a wealthy industrialist family who used slave labour from German concentration camps during the war – is housed here. Those dark associations aside the collection, with its ample Warhols Rauschenburgs and Kiefers, is a sight to behold. Price of admission: 14 Euros or about $20.

A deal to be sure but I have my sights on keeping cash in pocket for dinner. Berlin with its density of Turkish and Middle Eastern immigrants makes for ample cheap eats. Over in Kreuzberg the unfortunately-named Bagdad Donair on Schlesiche Strasse stand serves up near-perfect Middle-Eastern lunch fare for about 3 Euros ($4) – filling delicious and dirt-cheap.

Another U-bahn ride and we’re back in Mitte on Auguststrasse. With $92 left and dinner to be had I’m not worried. It’s Berlin. A quick walk down Augustrasse lands us at the front door of the Jewish School for Girls. In the early Nazi era Hitler forbid Jewish children from attending public school forcing Jews to open their own. As his horrific project gained momentum schoolgirls were deported from schools just like this one.

Long-closed it stood as a despairing monument of a dark history – of which there are far too many here. In recent years the low-slung dark brick building was reopened and reconditioned to house galleries creative businesses and the aforementioned Pauly Saal. If it seems to you a curious place for revelry – there’s a memorial in the wall – you’re not wrong. But reclaiming space from the bleakness of the past and pushing it forward with respect is just what Berliners do.

A quick coffee from Mogg and Meltzer across the lobby from Pauly Saal (2 Euros/$2.75) and my spirit’s refreshed. A stiff limey margarita-esque cocktail Pauly Saal’s bar (9 Euros/$13) brightens my mood. I have $89 left for dinner – even here more than enough. A grilled monkfish with lemon caper jus runs me 39 Euros ($50) which leaves just enough for two glasses of Max Muller Silvaner (a white German wine) at 11 Euros each ($15 so $30). It’s over to Kreuzberg for a nightcap at Schwarze Traube a dark little hipster bar on Wranglestrasse. I’ve got $9 left – and a couple beer and a night-capping tequila take care of that.

Good night Berlin.

TOTAL COST: $240

JUST THE FACTS

ARRIVING Flying Air Canada or any of the Star Alliance partners (Lufthansa specifically) almost always takes you through Frankfurt. With the transfer, you're looking at a 9 – 11 hour one-way flight.

SLEEPING You can spend a ton to stay in the glitzy portions of West Berlin, but don't do that: Mitte is significantly more charming, eclectic, and cheap. Perfectly decent, modern hotels like Arcotel range from $100-150/night.

GETTING AROUND Berlin is a public transit paradise, with streetcars, subways (U-bahn) and commuter rail for express routes (S-bahn). Unlimited use of the entire Berlin public transit system costs 24 Euros for a 3-day pass. A seven-day pass is 34 Euros; a single ride is 3 Euros.

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